Collaborative Process and Projects

It all started when…

Amanda Britton and I observed a common thread in the work we were making. We realized that in our new work we were both exploring the manipulation and assemblage of disparate parts. These might be fragments of material—ones made or acquired, abandoned and rescued, of ephemera, of objects that evoked memories and when assembled all together, appear to be in conversation with each other.

Amanda has been thinking a lot about the concept of migration— moving towards something and away from others. The ways in which we shift, change and create patterns, rituals and repetition. Creating intersections, remembering, and archiving the parts that are left behind, her work in this series takes the form of sewn collages on paper, bringing together fragments of material, paper, and found objects—or casts of those objects. 

My work employs traditional techniques of weaving, hand knitting, collaging and the incorporation of family photos. I have found that both handmade cloth and family photos accumulate, standing in for memories, serving as both a real/material and metaphorical archive. My artistic process is to respond to my research and culminates with art that is itself a sort of documentation, an accumulation/manipulation of evidence—incomplete, distorted, a fraction of the truth that remains and is revealed by her material interpretations. With my most recent research and artwork, I have been exploring the gendering of women’s handwork and craft, and see these textile collages which breathe new life into material remnants and abandoned textile projects as a conversation with parts of myself that either conform or struggle against societal gender norms.

By erasing the lines between the different parts of ourselves and the works, the desire is that the viewer will observe our collaborative work as colorful and harmonious, sharing a common thread and offering new meaning, memories, and narratives.

TextileArtist.org interviewed Amanda and I about our collaborative process. If you would like to learn more about it, please follow this link to the interview: https://www.textileartist.org/johanna-norry-and-amanda-britton-a-common-thread/